BRICS to Focus on Joint Skills Training Plan

China will work with the other four BRICS countries to put in place an action plan for skills-training to increase productivity and reduce poverty, a top Chinese official said.

Hao Bin, director of the Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, was speaking at the First BRICS Employment Working Group Meeting in Beijing.

BRICS countries represent 43 per cent of the world’s population.

“China plans to get rid of poverty and build a moderately prosperous society by 2020. Skills training is one of the approaches for meeting the challenging target,” Hao said according to a China Daily report.

“Meanwhile, poverty is also a problem for other BRICS states. We hope we can work with others to draft an initiative or action plan to lift people out of poverty with the help of skills training,” he added.

BRICS Labour and Employment Ministers will meet in the Chinese city of Chongqing in July.

With the five countries already launching new global financial instruments like the 100 billion BRICS Bank and a currency reserve fund, discussions concerning labour cooperation among the bloc were overdue.

Russia has, earlier last year, lauded the role played by the International Labour Organisation in preparing for a BRICS Labour Ministers forum meet.
Most of the BRICS countries struggle with labour rights issues, where rampant poverty and endemic corruption have compounded workers’ problems.

Unorganised workers in India constitute 93 per cent of the country’s total workforce with no social security coverage.

China makes almost half of the world’s goods while being criticized for ‘overlooking’ some of the worst working conditions for its migrant workers.

Meanwhile, South Africa suffers from having one of the highest unemployment rates in the world.